Shell fined S$400,000 for Pulau Bukom fire that injured 6 workers

Channel NewsAsia 8 Jan 19;

SINGAPORE: Oil giant Shell has been fined S$400,000 for a fire which broke out at a petroleum refinery on Pulau Bukom in 2015, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Tuesday (Jan 8).

The fire left six workers injured, including two with critical injuries after they suffered 50 per cent and 70 per cent burns.

On Aug 21, 2015, two groups of workers were simultaneously conducting maintenance and project works on a crude distillation unit at the refinery, said the ministry.

The first group was carrying out hot works on a scaffold. This included the use of a blow-cutting torch from an oxy-acetylene cylinder to cut and dismantle existing pipes.

The other group was carrying out cold works along a hydrocarbon solvent line on the ground. This involved removing a joint connection to a valve as well as connecting a hose to the valve to drain out residual flammable hydrocarbons inside the pipeline into a nearby pit.

"When one of the workers opened the valve to start the draining process, flammable vapours from the draining of hydrocarbons came into contact with the sparks from the hot works," said MOM.

The fire broke out despite the worker immediately closing the valve after he was alerted, said the ministry.

"SYSTEMIC FAILURE"

The fire was contained and extinguished within 30 minutes by the Bukom Emergency Response Team, MOM said.

"Investigations revealed that there was a systemic failure in Shell’s oversight to check for compatibility of different work activities carried out within the same vicinity at the same time," it said.

The hot and cold works carried out by the two groups in the same vicinity were not coordinated. This caused the flammable vapours from the cold works to be ignited by sparks from the hot works.

Shell was charged for failing to implement adequate control measures to ensure compatibility of works were carried out at the refinery.

MOM’s director of the major hazards department Go Heng Huat said the refinery, which is a major hazard installation, must properly manage safety and risk control measures.

"The lives of workers and the public could have been put at risk because adequate control measures were not properly implemented," said Mr Go.

"Even though there was no loss of life in this case, the potential for more severe consequences was evident."

The Pulau Bukom site, Shell’s largest wholly owned plant, has a 500,000 barrels per day refinery and a steam cracker that produces more than 900,000 tonnes of ethylene a year.

In September 2011, a blaze at the refinery took 100 firefighters nearly two days to put out and forced the oil giant to shut the plant. One firefighter had a superficial injury and five others had heat exhaustion and pulled muscles, the Singapore Civil Defence Force said then.

On December 2017, another fire broke out at Shell's Pulau Bukom facility. No injuries were reported in this incident.

Source: CNA/ad(cy)


Shell fined $400,000 over Pulau Bukom fire that injured six workers
Shaffiq Alkhatib Straits Times 8 Jan 19;

SINGAPORE - Oil giant Shell has been fined $400,000 for a health and safety breach that led to a fire at the Pulau Bukom petroleum refinery which left six workers with burns.

Two groups of workers were carrying out different tasks in close proximity, resulting in flammable vapours coming into contact with sparks from a nearby blowtorch on Aug 21, 2015.

Indian nationals Jaswant Singh and Saravarapu Suresh Kumar suffered burns affecting up to 70 per cent of their bodies.

Two other Indian nationals, a Filipino and a Myanmar national also suffered burns. No one died in the incident.

On Tuesday (Jan 8), Shell Eastern Petroleum, which carries out refinery works at the facility, became the third company to be fined $400,000 for an offence under the Workplace Safety and Health Act, after pleading guilty last October.

The Straits Times understands this is the first case involving a major hazard installation - a place where large quantities of toxic and flammable substances are stored and/or used.

SMRT was fined $400,000 in February 2017 for safety lapses leading to an accident that killed two people near Pasir Ris station the previous year.

Jurong Shipyard was fined the same amount nine months later over a 2012 incident in which an oil rig tilted, injuring 89 people.

In the current case, Ministry of Manpower (MOM) prosecutor Delvinder Singh told the court that Mr Saravarapu was using a blowtorch from an oxyacetylene cylinder to cut some pipes. Mr Jaswant Singh was assisting him.

Shell also confirmed that the fire was put out within an hour by the site's first emergency responders.

Other workers, who performed "cold works" were tasked with removing a joint connection to a valve. When one of the workers opened the valve to start the draining process, flammable vapours came into contact with sparks, causing the fire.

The MOM said on Tuesday that the blaze was contained and extinguished by the Bukom Emergency Response Team within 30 minutes.

The ministry added: "Investigations revealed that there was a systemic failure in Shell's oversight to check for compatibility of different work activities carried out within the same vicinity at the same time.

"The hot works and cold works carried out by the two groups of workers in the same vicinity were not coordinated, thus creating a situation where flammable vapours generated by the cold works were ignited by sparks from the hot works."

Shell said on Tuesday: "Since the incident in August 2015, we have extended our full cooperation to the relevant authorities, learnt from the incident and implemented improvements across our site.

"Shell has a goal zero ambition to achieve no harm and no leaks across all of our operations. We are committed to operating responsibly and safely, causing no harm to our staff and contractors. Incidents like this are unacceptable and we are committed - at all levels of our organisation - to continuously strive towards an incident-free workplace."

In September 2011, more than 100 firefighters helped to put out a fire that raged for 32 hours at the Pulau Bukom refinery.

Shell was fined $80,000 the following year for lapses in workplace safety that led to the fire.